Solidarity Bankers Podcasts: Episode No. 2

Interview with Andréas BRUNNER, Inspection Supervisor, Amundi
Produced by: Mireille de Kerleau, Communications Manager, CACEIS

Launched by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA in 2018, Solidarity Bankers is a skills-based volunteering program open to all Crédit Agricole Group employees, supporting microfinance institutions and impact businesses supported by the Foundation. This is the second episode of the podcast series dedicated to Solidarity Bankers, the skills-based volunteering program run by the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA. The first episode featured Carolina Viguet, Director of Communications & Partnerships at the Foundation and co-initiator of this program. Today, we have the pleasure of welcoming Andreas Brunner, Inspection Supervisor at Amundi in Paris. Andreas is a Solidarity Banker. He carried out a field mission for Oxus in Kyrgyzstan in October 2021 while working at CA Assurances.

Some financial facts about Kyrgyzstan. It is a former republic of the USSR, and one of the poorest countries in Central Asia. With over 12% of its GDP dedicated to the agricultural sector and a heavy reliance on mining, the Kyrgyz economy is poorly diversified and relies largely on remittances from abroad. Although significant progress has been made in recent years in terms of financial inclusion, according to the latest available figures, barely 40% of the population aged over 15 has an account with a formal financial institution. Microfinance institutions are trying to fill these gaps by targeting rural populations excluded from the traditional banking sector, institutions such as OXUS Kyrgyzstan, which Andreas supported in 2021 as part of a Solidarity Bankers mission.

Andreas, can you tell us about the institution and the objective of your mission? ?

Yes, of course. OXUS Kyrgyzstan is a microfinance institution with approximately 10,000 clients. It operates in various regions of the country through a network of around fifteen branches. It employs 130 staff, with approximately 30 people at its headquarters located in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan. Regarding the mission, there were two objectives. The first was to establish a marketing plan for 2022 and also a customer loyalty program.

If we go back a little, how did you hear about the mission and what made you want to apply?

It's already starting to date. In 2019, I had the chance to meet a former Solidarity Banker who told me about his own mission and who told me that there would be other missions offered by Grameen. He told me about his experience and I told him that I was also interested. So I contacted the Grameen Foundation which had, at that time, several missions to propose. I looked at the terms of reference, it's a short description of what there was to do. And I immediately said ok, I'm interested, and what's more it's in a Central Asian country that I didn't know at all. So it was a good opportunity to go and help this entity, to immerse myself in the subject of microfinance, and at the same time, discover another country.

Following this, you were selected. How did the preparation for the mission and the actual field mission go?

I had a few interviews to be selected. I wasn't at all sure I'd be selected because it's true that there were other people who also wanted to do this mission. Once selected, I was super happy. I was supposed to leave at the beginning of 2020. You all know what happened after that, so I couldn't leave in March. I didn't leave until the end of 2021, but the preparation, yes... First of all, I didn't know anything about microfinance. I had to do some research, I had to read. There was a lot of information on the internet to understand the challenges of microfinance. Of course, there's financial inclusion support, that's kind of the overall objective, and then you had to understand how it works, how the loans are distributed to people who need them. And then, the mission, you also had to prepare for it, so you had to understand the entity. I asked them to send me a certain number of documents so that I could get to know the entity, its operation, its positioning, its products, its clients, etc. So I analyzed all of that and defined a work plan. I also defined an almost consultancy approach, what my consultancy approach was with this entity. Then I presented that and I did some more research before leaving.

How did your arrival in the country and the meetings you had go? How did the mission on the ground go?

A little anecdote: arriving at 2 a.m. after a twelve-hour flight, with a short stopover in Turkey, we finally arrived quite tired and, the good surprise, normally there was supposed to be a driver so I was a little worried because I didn't see anyone. But it was the general manager himself who came to pick me up at the airport. Already, with that arrival, we started off on a good basis for collaboration for two weeks and I was in good hands.

We started the mission the same day after a little rest at the hotel. The first week went by very, very quickly. There were a number of interviews that were already planned. I met with the various directors, the financial director, the sales director, a person who was in charge of marketing, so I was able to learn about a number of elements. I was able to ask all the questions I needed to establish a structured document on precisely the marketing approach I wanted to bring to this entity. So the field mission is mainly a lot of interviews, it's also a bit of work in the evening to put everything down on paper, and to build a deliverable, several deliverables in fact.

As I said earlier, there were two objectives. The first objective was to build a marketing plan and the second a loyalty approach, a loyalty program. There were two key deliverables. These deliverables had to be built, produced. I built the deliverables in English. At the end of the first week, I gave an initial feedback saying, "Here I am working on this, is this okay with you, are we going in the right direction?" They were very happy with it and it needed to be refined in the second week.

The question we ask ourselves when we hear you is how the exchanges with the people of the institution and the clients went, knowing that the language and culture are very different from ours.

Yes, absolutely! At headquarters, I was lucky enough to have people who spoke English, so it was easier. However, the second week I had a few interviews at the agency. I was also able to meet one or two clients and there, indeed, it was more complicated. Fortunately, there was a translator who accompanied me during these discussions throughout the day, because even to go to lunch, for example, you had to either speak Russian or Kyrgyz. So luckily I had this person with me, because otherwise it's difficult to communicate, and it's also true that the people at headquarters who speak English, even sometimes for them, it was easier for them to answer me in Russian and then the person translates. So, it possibly added a little time to have a good exchange, it was a little longer than in a classic exchange when you master the language, but it was very very interesting.

So you've been around the country a bit, visiting other cities and towns, I imagine. Have you had some time to take a tour of this magnificent country?

Yes, it's true that the main exchanges were in and around the capital. And between the two weeks of work, I was able to take two days on the weekend to discover the country. There's a very large lake called Issyk-Kul, which is almost 200 km long and 60 km wide, so it's almost like a sea.

It's almost as big as Luxembourg!

These two days I went around the lake. So this enormous lake, when you look to the left you see a mountain range, when you look to the right, there is the other mountain range. So it's true that by doing the whole route, a whole little circuit around the lake, I was able to discover this country. I was even able to sleep in a yurt, that too is an unforgettable experience. In addition, I was able to see someone who makes yurts, so they explained to me how it works. There I also had a guide with me. I was able to communicate a little bit in Russian too, because I have some knowledge of Russian. When I was in middle school I learned a little bit so it was also nice to get back into it. As we were saying earlier, it's quite a human experience.

If you wanted to know what I remember from all this, it's above all these experiences, this human relationship, these encounters with different people, not only through the mission, with the teams, but also with the people we were able to meet on the weekend while crossing the country a little. A very warm people.

Even without the language, there is always a way to understand each other, with gestures, smiles, looks I imagine.

It's true, it's true! We were able to do a little local dance one evening in a yurt, in a big yurt in fact, it was the yurt where we had dinner and in fact there were only locals and it was very difficult to make ourselves understood but there was the telephone, there were applications and we put on some music and immediately it built confidence and it also allowed us to communicate through music because we found songs that they knew and...

So, that's a great share! Listening to all this, my last question is, would you go on a mission again? I imagine so... yes!

Absolutely, absolutely, yes. Right away! Maybe not tomorrow because it's in the planning stages a little, but in any case, yes, with great pleasure. Skills sponsorship is about applying the knowledge you have and sharing it with others, and not being paid for it because we work every day, we're paid, it's our job. Being able to share it with others is rewarding, it gives meaning.

Thank you, thank you very much for agreeing to participate in this interview. I look forward to seeing our listeners for the next edition of this podcast series, this time dedicated not to one banker, but to two, who are currently preparing a remote mission for a microfinance institution in Palestine. See you soon.

Listen to the podcast here

The SSNUP program supports cocoa cooperatives in Côte d'Ivoire

SSNUP is a program coordinated by the NGO ADA, whose objective is to increase the productivity and resilience of smallholder farmers in Asia, Africa, and Latin America through better risk management and the development of sustainable agricultural value chains. Funded by the governments of Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein, SSNUP aims to improve the living conditions and food security of more than 10 million smallholder farmers. The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is one of the impact investors responsible for implementing the project.

Producer cooperatives, a lever for development

In Côte d'Ivoire, where more than half of cocoa producers live below the poverty line, producer cooperatives are a powerful lever for development. Beyond the commercial aspect they offer producers, they provide their members with services ranging from inputs and the supply of small equipment to improving community life through initiatives such as the establishment of schools and clinics. However, cooperatives sometimes encounter repayment difficulties from their members, and unpaid debts are then covered by the cooperatives from their own funds, which prevents them from carrying out their social development mission.

This is what Advans Côte d'Ivoire has been striving to achieve since its inception in 2012, becoming the first financial institution to provide cocoa cooperatives with access to input credit. Advans Côte d'Ivoire's input credit consists of providing cocoa cooperatives with financing that allows them to extend loans to their members to purchase fertilizers and plant protection products.

Strengthening the capacities of cocoa cooperatives in Côte d'Ivoire and their members

Advans Côte d'Ivoire received a grant from SSNUP to support cocoa cooperatives in improving the repayment levels of member producers. With the funding, the institution recruited technical assistance providers to develop input credit management and monitoring tools for cooperatives and financial education modules on credit management for small cocoa producers.

Ultimately, strengthening the financial education capacity of small producers will help limit the risk of non-payment to cooperatives. These cooperatives will be able to secure their income through better credit risk management, thus fulfilling their role as facilitators in the value chain and carrying out their social actions for the benefit of the community. This will also make it easier for cooperatives to renew their loans with Advans Côte d'Ivoire, and for producers to have access to the inputs needed to ensure good agricultural yields, thereby increasing their income and improving their living conditions.
Finally, Advans Côte d'Ivoire will strengthen its risk profile, which will help consolidate existing relationships with its current partners and attract new investors.

The Foundation publishes the 2nd edition of “Prises de Parole”

The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation has been promoting financial inclusion and social entrepreneurship for thirteen years and continues to prioritize the development of rural areas and women entrepreneurs. At the end of 2021, the Foundation had accumulated nearly €300 million in funding, 379 technical assistance missions underway or completed, and 136 organizations funded.

We are pleased to share with you this second edition of our speeches. They discuss our daily support for entrepreneurs, rural communities, refugees, and farmers. Enabling refugees in the Nakivale camp to access credit in Uganda, modernizing agricultural practices in Moldova, financing access to water, and ensuring the pay of livestock farmers in Senegal are just a few examples highlighted in this second edition.

These statements demonstrate the resilience of the microfinance sector, its ability to cope with the health crisis, economic difficulties, and the effects of global warming. Resilience also refers to the ability to transform obstacles into opportunities to strengthen oneself. The digital transformation, coordination between stakeholders, and innovation demonstrated by our partners throughout these recent difficult months clearly demonstrate this.

Download the document here

New Solidarity Bankers mission in Kosovo

©GRAMEEN CREDIT AGRICOLE FOUNDATION/GODONG

At the initiative of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA, Solidarity Banker volunteering missions are being offered to Crédit Agricole Group employees on behalf of organizations supported by the Foundation. A new Solidarity Banker mission is available for the Agency for Finance (AFK) in Kosovo. This institution, founded in 2000, obtained microfinance institution status in 2011.

AFK aims to improve living conditions in Kosovo by providing access to sustainable financial services for small and microenterprises. As of December 2021, AFK had 24 branches located throughout the country and employed 225 staff. The institution serves 20,733 active borrowers (231 women and 501 rural borrowers) and manages a financing portfolio of €40.2 million.

AFK has developed a risk management policy primarily focused on credit risk. Given its growth, the institution now wishes to equip itself with an appropriate risk management system to improve the identification and analysis of risks, particularly operational risks. The Solidarity Banker will be responsible for supporting AFK in diagnosing current risk management procedures and tools, particularly operational risks.

To discover the detailed mission offer Click here.

How to apply

Send your CV and one or two paragraphs expressing your motivation and expertise to carolina.viguet@credit-agricole-sa.fr

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Created in 2008, under the joint leadership of Crédit Agricole SA's management and Professor Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is a multi-sector operator that contributes to the fight against poverty through financial inclusion and social impact entrepreneurship. As an investor, lender, technical assistance coordinator, and fund advisor, the Foundation supports microfinance institutions and social enterprises in nearly 40 countries.

New Solidarity Banker missions in Cambodia and Kenya

At the initiative of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA, skills-based volunteering missions labeled "Solidarity Bankers" are being offered to Crédit Agricole Group employees on behalf of organizations supported by the Foundation. Two new Solidarity Banker missions are available for PPSE in Cambodia and ACRE Africa in Kenya.

PPSE is a social enterprise that employs young artists from disadvantaged backgrounds and offers them career opportunities in circus arts by combining the best of Cambodian cultural traditions and contemporary circus. PPSE extends and expands the work of the Phare Ponleu Selpak NGO by offering real career opportunities to professional artists from the Phare School while providing additional financial resources to the NGO to help it develop its social mission.

PPSE now needs to develop and expand its digital community and position its new range of services and activities. The organization wishes to explore and maximize the use of social and traditional media, train its staff, and expand its scope of action as much as possible. The Solidarity Banker's mission will be to support PPSE, particularly in the diagnosis and implementation of a new marketing and communications strategy.

ACRE Africa is a social enterprise operating in Kenya, Rwanda, and Tanzania. The organization makes agricultural insurance accessible to small farms and for very low insured amounts, thanks to a triple innovation: index insurance; distribution by aggregators; and payment by mobile money. ACRE thus allows small farms to access credit on more favorable terms.

Having decided to diversify its activities to offer consulting services, ACRE now needs to expand its clientele and highlight its new range of services and activities. The organization wishes, among other things, to explore and maximize the use of social and traditional media, and to train its staff. The Solidarity Banker will be responsible for supporting ACRE Africa in assessing the organization's marketing and communications strategy and tools in order to propose a new strategy and appropriate tools.

Other missions are also still available: 

  • Risk and compliance mission on behalf of the microfinance institution SEF (South Africa)
  • Digital strategy mission on behalf of the microfinance institution OXUS Kyrgyzstan (Kyrgyzstan)
  • Risk and compliance mission on behalf of the microfinance institution Bimas Ltd (Kenya)

How to apply

To discover the detailed mission offers:

  • Go to the site CA Solidaires “Finding your mission”
  • Enter "Grameen Foundation" in the search bar. All Solidarity Leave offers will appear!
  • Click on the offer of your choice, you will find all the information necessary for your application.

More information: carolina.viguet@credit-agricole-sa.fr

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Created in 2008, under the joint leadership of Crédit Agricole SA's management and Professor Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is a multi-sector operator that contributes to the fight against poverty through financial inclusion and social impact entrepreneurship. As an investor, lender, technical assistance coordinator, and fund advisor, the Foundation supports microfinance institutions and social enterprises in nearly 40 countries.

The Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation in 2021

Eric Campos, Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation

In 2021, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation supported 81 microfinance institutions and social enterprises in 37 countries. Amid the Covid-19 crisis, the Foundation supported its partners with financing and technical assistance. A spotlight on an interview with Eric Campos, General Delegate of the Foundation and CSR Director at Crédit Agricole SA.

How did you support microfinance institutions?

Contrary to what we expected, the entire year 2021 was marked by the Covid crisis and its economic effects, as well as the measures taken by governments to protect populations. The Foundation therefore intervened in three ways with partners. First, we maintained a fairly high level of financing, with €45 million loaned to microfinance institutions. We also granted loan deferrals to give institutions breathing space and allow them to cope with the loan deferrals they granted to their beneficiaries. And finally, we increased our capacity and our coordination in terms of technical assistance, since, and this is a record, we coordinated 130 technical assistance missions, mainly to support institutions in terms of risks, counterparty risks, strengthening their risk teams, their organization, and also in terms of cash management.

How is the microfinance sector doing at the end of 2021?

2020 was a Covid year, and institutions coped with and were able to cope with this systemic crisis. 2021 was tougher. They had been somewhat exhausted by the first year of 2020, and they had to continue their efforts and their resilience. And so, indeed, the Foundation was able to support these institutions, but we saw some difficult cases arise for which not only postponements but also restructurings had to be granted.

It's important to say that the entire microfinance sector, including foundations and investment funds, were able to work together to best support the institutions experiencing the greatest difficulties. The sector remains resilient. It's an attractive sector. We can say that it faced this systemic crisis with a resilience that was probably even greater than we expected.

What is the Foundation's agenda for 2022?

2022 will be the year we prepare our medium-term plan, 2022-2025. It will focus on the climate crisis, which is severely impacting the Foundation's areas of operation.

Better supporting rural populations and strengthening their economic resilience in the aftermath of an extremely serious economic crisis; this will be the first area we will work on. And the second is supporting the most vulnerable populations, those who have also suffered from this economic crisis and who need support in accessing financing and developing income-generating activities. These will be the two focuses of our 2022-2025 medium-term plan.

Access the interview here 

New Solidarity Bankers mission in South Africa

At the initiative of the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation and Crédit Agricole SA, skills-based volunteering missions labeled "Solidarity Bankers" are offered to Crédit Agricole Group employees on behalf of organizations supported by the Foundation.

A new Solidarity Bankers position is available for the Phakamani Foundation in South Africa. Phakamani is a microfinance institution that empowers poor women to succeed in microenterprise. Its microentrepreneurship program is inspired by the Grameen Bank. Its system of training, group borrowing, and ongoing support provides both empowerment and practical assistance for microenterprise development.

The institution has nearly 35,000 active borrowers, exclusively women located in rural areas, with a portfolio worth €3.12 million. The Solidarity Banker will be responsible for supporting the Phakamani Foundation, particularly in implementing an action plan to improve risk management.

How to apply

To discover the detailed mission offers:

  • Go to the site CA Solidaires “Finding your mission”
  • Enter "Grameen Foundation" in the search bar. All Solidarity Leave offers will appear!
  • Click on the offer of your choice, you will find all the information necessary for your application.

More information: carolina.viguet@credit-agricole-sa.fr

___________________________________________________________

Created in 2008, under the joint leadership of Crédit Agricole SA's management and Professor Yunus, 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and founder of Grameen Bank, the Grameen Crédit Agricole Foundation is a multi-sector operator that contributes to the fight against poverty through financial inclusion and social impact entrepreneurship. As an investor, lender, technical assistance coordinator, and fund advisor, the Foundation supports microfinance institutions and social enterprises in nearly 40 countries.